Pregnancy Risk Assessment Template for Health and Safety

Health and Safety Intersection with Pregnancy at Work

Health and safety is a legal obligation for all UK businesses, importance increasing when factoring in expectant mothers. Pregnancy brings about physiological changes, which might influence how an employee interacts with their work environment.

Given these changes, assessing potential risks and mitigating them effectively is a critical part of workplace health and safety. The template will provide you with more insights into potential risks in the workplace.

A Pregnancy Risk Assessment’s role is to identify risks in the workplace. Following identifying the risks, implement necessary measures to ensure a safe, comfortable, and productive work environment for pregnant employees.

Legal Obligations for UK businesses

The UK’s Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations (1999) requires employers to conduct a ‘suitable and sufficient’ risk assessment for all expectant mothers once they have been notified of the pregnancy.

Failure to comply with health and safety regulations may result in legal and financial penalties. Other negative effects include employee morale and productivity, potentially impacting absenteeism and turnover. Completing a Pregnancy Risk assessment in the workplace isn’t just an ethical requirement but a legal obligation for UK businesses.

Our pregnancy risk assessment template will align your business with UK health and safety regulations.

The Role of a Pregnancy Risk Assessment

The primary objective of a Pregnancy Risk Assessment is to identify risks that may affect pregnant employees or their unborn children. This can include everything from heavy lifting, exposure to harmful substances, high-stress levels, or long working hours. Has your business consider the risk of the expectant mother commuting to work? Could they work remotely for the last month or two?

Take appropriate measures to eliminate or reduce risks in the workplace, which may be harmful to expectant mothers.

Possible measures to consider;

·        Flexible hours

·        Additional equipment

·        Changing the employee’s role

·        Working from home

Benefits of Using a Pregnancy Risk Assessment Template

Crafting a Pregnancy Risk Assessment from scratch is time consuming. The document will be demanding on your time, given the multitude of potential hazards that require careful consideration. This is where our template comes into play.

Designed by our health and safety consultants, our template provides a step-by-step guide to assess all potential risks effectively. The document provides appropriate control measures to put in place to ensure the well-being of your pregnant employees.

This easy-to-use resource saves time, enhances efficiency, and identifies hazards you possibly have missed or not thought of. Save down the template, allowing you to use it when required.

All employees have the right to a safe working environment. But when an employee is expecting, the stakes are even higher. By conducting a thorough Pregnancy Risk Assessment, the pregnant employee may feel protected and supported, leading to high job satisfaction.

We encourage you to download our Pregnancy Risk Assessment template to help you navigate this process. The template it’s a tool to create a safer and more inclusive work environment.

The path to a safe workplace starts with identifying and addressing potential working environment risks.

Don’t wait until it’s too late—make Pregnancy Risk Assessment a part of your company’s health and safety documentation today.

Check out our other health and safety resources

• Managing stress in the workplace
• Guidance on Risk assessments
• Health and Safety Checklist